Pet peeves, part 2

If you read today’s Table Hopping column in the paper, go here for the full list of additional pet peeves. If you clicked the “column” link above or otherwise read the online version of the column, which contained more peeves than made it to print, the rest of that (smaller) list is after the jump.

Thanks to all who contributed. Feel free to send in a comment to add any you don’t see here or in print.

From customers:

Refusing to seat customers until an entire party has arrived.

Refusing to transfer a bar tab to a dinner check.

Being seated in a high-traffic area when other tables are unavailable.

Receiving a snotty answer after requesting to not be seated in a high-traffic area.

Being told that booths are only for larger parties even when the restaurant is not full.

White napkins that shed lint on dark clothing.

Long lists of daily specials that are impossible to remember.

Menus with misspellings — in any language.

Unreasonable plate-sharing charges.

Poor pacing of courses.

One course being delivered “because it was ready” before a preceding course has been consumed.

Kitchen staffers who don’t pay attention to the food they put out. If the beef noodle soup has no meat in it, the chowder has curdled, the lettuce is brown or the tomato wedge is mostly core, not flesh, don’t serve it.

Kitchens that cannot make items taste the same on successive visits.

Watery drinks.

Expensive restaurants that ID young-looking customers even when they order a $100 bottle of wine.

The demise of most tableside cooking.

Servers who have been trained (it’s too ubiquitous to be otherwise) to squat with their face at table level or slide into a booth next to you, as they get up close and personal with guests. Such artificial sincerity makes you feel as if you’re being waited on by a smarmy DJ.

Servers who respond to everything you order with a chirpy “You got it!”

Servers who respond to unusual but not unreasobale requests (i.e., mustard on a tuna sandwich) by saying “Really?!” not “Sure, no problem.”

Servers who call customers “Hon” but aren’t remotely motherly in aspect or attitude.

Servers who play with or otherwise distract children during meals.

Servers who feel entitled to judge what customers feed their children.

Servers who give straws to people drinking iced tea and soda but not water.

Servers who repeatedly offer refills to coffee drinkers but begrudge tea drinkers a new teabag.

Servers who put to-go containers on the table before or during dessert.

Servers who must be flagged down in order to pay the check.

Servers who charge you for items you ordered but did not receive.

Servers who do not say “thank you” when they receive a tip.

Servers who loudly talk about their personal lives with fellow staffers as though customers are all deaf or capable of selective imperception. (Sorry if your boyfriend is a louse and you’re dumping the jerk, but spare us.)

Being told, after spending several years and much money as a regular patron, “If you don’t like it here, don’t come back” after voicing one reasonable complaint.